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BILL WAREHAM: Gambling has emerged as the funding source most likely to end up in the stadium bill. One proposal would put 1,500 slots at Canterbury Park racetrack. Another calls for construction of a state run casino on the Met Center property in Bloomington.

Governor Arne Carlson says the Canterbury proposal seems to have the most steam. And despite saying he would oppose the expansion of gambling in the past, Carlson now says he would approve the Canterbury Park plan because the law already allows wagering at the track.

ARNE CARLSON: We currently have gambling at Canterbury Downs that preceded this debate. And what this does is allow for an extension of that gambling at Canterbury Downs.

BILL WAREHAM: If the governor is warm to the gambling plan, the same can't be said for Major League Baseball. In testimony before the House and Senate tax committees, acting Commissioner Bud Selig would only say the league is reconsidering its rules discouraging links to gambling.

BUD SELIG: Sports lottery is OK. But I want to say to you, we are extremely sensitive about any link to any type of gambling. Very sensitive.

BILL WAREHAM: Twins owner Carl Pohlad has offered to turn over 49% of his franchise to the state if it picks up most of the tab for the $400 million ballpark he says the Twins need. And Selig says owners are willing to reconsider the league's prohibition on public ownership of teams.

Stadium supporters have called the public ownership provision a revolutionary way to share in the team's financial success. But even as Selig says, the Twins absolutely require a new facility to achieve financial success. When talk turned to the ownership issue, he was equally adamant that such an investment wouldn't be risk free.

BUD SELIG: Please remember that this is a business where a large percentage of clubs have lost money. I guess the thing that would be curious to me is that baseball being the risky business that it is, you get into it.

And goodness knows, don't want to tell any of you your business. You get into losing money every year or the potential to do that, you have to be extremely sensitive and careful. And so we have been very careful in the protection of it. So at this moment, we don't allow that.

BILL WAREHAM: The commissioner fielded several questions from lawmakers concerned about rapidly rising player salaries. Senate Tax Chair Doug Johnson is among those concerned that building a new stadium for the Twins doesn't solve the team's problems over the long-term.

DOUG JOHNSON: How long does it last when the player begins to make $20 million a year, rather than $10 million? That's kind of the issue in our state. And we would like professional sports, we'd like baseball, we'd like for professional sports, but there's no guarantee it's-- there's no end to what's happening, and no security for a state to make these financial commitments.

SPEAKER 5: Commissioner.

BUD SELIG: Let me say this to you. This is the first year of revenue sharing. It gets greater and greater and greater in each of the next five years. The luxury tax is there for the first time, and so clubs that go over certain thresholds in payroll are going to be taxed very substantially.

If you were to ask me today, well, how will all come out? It's too early yet. This is the first year we're in the first month of the first year of the new labor contract. But there is clearly more restraint than ever before, and revenue sharing is far more substantial than people understand.

BILL WAREHAM: Commissioner Selig's testimony was part of the legislature's most comprehensive day of hearings on the stadium issue, but the eight plus hour hearing produced little consensus. Rather, it revealed the gargantuan task lawmakers face sifting through more than a half dozen proposals in the final three weeks of the 1997 session. The tax committees are expected to continue the stadium debate next week and perhaps vote on a bill. I'm Bill Wareham, Minnesota Public Radio at the Capitol.